The Diabolical Ending of 'The Girlfriend'

Prime Video’s The Girlfriend premiered earlier this week. As I noted in my review, it’s basically War of the Roses, only instead of a divorcing couple, it’s a mother and her future daughter-in-law fighting over their son/fiancé. It’s Do Revenge for millennials and Gen Xers. It’s a revenge thriller, and it’s trashy fun.

It’s also not hard to follow, so if you’re here hoping for clarity about the ending, maybe watch it again — with your eyes open this time. But if the tit-for-tat revenge schemes didn’t appeal to you and you just want to know what happened in the end, have I got the post for you!

The premise is straightforward: A well-to-do twenty-something Momma’s boy, Daniel (Daniel Sanderson), brings his new girlfriend, Cherry Lane (Olivia Cooke), home to meet his mom, Laura Sanderson (Robin Wright). Laura is immediately suspicious of Cherry because she’s possessive of her son in a nearly Oedipal way. She and her husband, Howard (Waleed Zuaiter) — with whom she has an open marriage — lost a daughter years ago, so Laura clings especially hard to Daniel. She probably would have disapproved of almost anyone, but with Cherry, her suspicions aren’t entirely unfounded. Cherry, a real estate agent, gets caught in a few lies that suggest she isn’t who she claims to be. She’s not rich or high-class enough for Laura’s tastes.

And so the tit-for-tat begins, as both women vie for Daniel, knowing they can’t coexist in his life. Here are the highlights:

Tit: After Daniel reveals he wants to be a trauma surgeon — changing from his original medical path — Laura gets pissy that Cherry was involved in the decision and she wasn’t. So, she passive-aggressively spills hot sauce on Cherry at dinner.

Tat: Cherry lets Laura’s cat out the window. Later, when she kisses Daniel in front of Laura, she stares knowingly, as if to say, “He’s mine. Not yours.” The blowjob Laura walks in on makes the same point.

Tit: On a family vacation in a fancy island house, Laura ostracizes Cherry and hints that Daniel still has feelings for his ex.

Tat: Cherry turns off Daniel’s phone while biking, ensuring he misses a meal of his favorite dishes prepared by the family chef, enraging Laura. Later, from outside on a beach chair and from Daniel’s balcony, Cherry and Daniel mutually masturbate until Laura walks in. Laura retaliates by turning the sprinklers on Cherry.

Tit: On a yachting trip, Cherry appears to drown after falling off a paddleboard. Laura jumps in to save her, bonding them until Laura realizes Cherry faked the incident to manipulate her. Laura demands Cherry stay away from her son.

Tat: Cherry refuses and helps Daniel pick out a new home for them. When she learns Daniel plans to continue a birthday tradition with his mother, Cherry also surprises him with a rock-climbing trip instead.

Tit: Laura discovers Cherry sabotaged her ex-boyfriend’s wedding and that he filed a restraining order against her. But Cherry preemptively tells Daniel her ex was an abusive stalker. When Laura tries to warn him anyway, Daniel angrily dismisses her.

Tat: During the rock-climbing trip, Cherry fails to secure a rope, and Daniel falls, sustaining grave injuries. Cherry is grief-stricken, but Laura convinces Howard to kick her out of the hospital, saying it’s a “family matter now.”

Then things escalate again: Laura calls an inconsolable Cherry to say Daniel has died. It’s a lie. He hasn’t. Over the next several months, Laura takes Daniel away to help him recuperate and blocks and reroutes all communication so Cherry believes Daniel is dead, while Daniel believes Cherry abandoned him. Both Cherry and Daniel are despondent.

When Laura returns home after recuperating abroad, she uses a stolen password to hack Cherry’s Instagram and badmouth a client, getting Cherry fired. This is where the series fully turns against Laura, who has not only broken up her son and Cherry but left Cherry without an income, blacklisted by the entire profession.

Tit: Eventually, Daniel and Cherry cross paths in an elevator, and the truth comes out. Daniel angrily cuts ties with his mother, reunites with Cherry, and they get engaged.

Tat: But winning Daniel isn’t enough. Cherry pushes a former employee to sue Laura for harassment. When Laura confronts her, Cherry smashes a champagne glass over her own head and blames Laura for the assault, further alienating her from both Daniel and Howard, who now believes Laura has lost her mind.

Cherry then sabotages Laura’s art gallery.

Tit: Laura digs deeper into Cherry’s past, learning she once injured her abusive father so severely he was left bedridden. Laura also records Cherry’s mother admitting that Cherry always gets what she wants, no matter who gets in her way. She tries to share the voice memo with Daniel.

Tat: In the final showdown, Laura and Cherry fight as Laura attempts to reveal the incriminating evidence. Laura drugs Daniel so he’ll be forced to listen, but Cherry tries to stop her. During the scuffle, Cherry nearly drowns Laura in the indoor pool, but Laura turns the tables and pushes Cherry’s head under water. Just then, Daniel walks in, sees his mother drowning Cherry, and — in order to save Cherry — drowns Laura instead.

Game over. Laura is dead. Cherry wins. Except, months later, after marrying Cherry and after we learn she’s pregnant, Daniel finds the voice memo his mother left, proof that Cherry is unhinged. As the credits roll, Daniel realizes the trap he’s in. The end!